EVANSVILLE - Outgunned by an 8-1 margin on the Evansville City Council, Republicans know a lot of things have to happen for them to gain control of the body in this year's elections.

The field of three GOP nominees for at-large seats on the council will be chosen from among six candidates in the May 3 primary elections.

Evansville Republicans also are making an all-out push to elect a new mayor this year.

Among the six GOP candidates for three at-large council nominations are several who say city officials haven't been listening to residents. Others have specific experiences and skill sets they believe will translate well to the work of a local governing body.

The field includes an Internet developer who has worked and traveled abroad, a veteran law enforcement officer, a registered nurse and anti-abortion activist, a certified nursing assistant who brings a newcomer's perspective to the city, a taxi company manager and a land agent who leases property for oil and gas exploration.

Paul Abramson

An international connection of sorts is what Paul Abramson says he would add to the City Council.

The 53-year-old Abramson, a self-employed Internet developer who builds Web pages for small businesses and churches, says he has lived in Tokyo, Japan and southern Germany and has traveled throughout Western Europe and Southeast Asia.

In Tokyo in the 1990s, Abramson worked as a computer programmer and wrote for a magazine and a government newspaper. In the early 80s he spent three years in Germany while serving as a radio operator in the U.S. Army.

He says his "international orientation" would be an asset on the City Council.

"We're right here in the middle of America, and yet we have the ability to reach out internationally," Abramson said. "I believe that increased trade business is one of the answers for how we can grow our community and have a better quality of life.

"There's no reason why we can't be competing even with major cities for, say, the U.S. office of some European company — French, German, whatever it is. We're within a day's drive of most of the U.S."

Jeremy Heath

A relative newcomer to Evansville, the 25-year-old Heath came here from Royal Center, Ind., in 2005 to attend the University of Evansville. His campaign's Facebook page says he "quickly fell in love with the city."

Heath met his wife at UE, and now he feels fully invested in the city and ready to contribute something substantial. He names jobs creation and listening to constituents as his top priorities if elected to the City Council.

"No matter what my personal opinion is, it's going to be the people's concerns that are the top priority," said Heath, a certified nursing assistant at Good Samaritan nursing home.

"I think it falls on the council and the mayor to go out there, be proactive, even so far as emailing and phone calling business owners," he said. "If I have to make a couple of phone calls to some fella in Nebraska who's thinking on expanding his business, that's a couple of phone calls well-spent if it brings us some jobs here in Evansville."

Heath's self-proclaimed love for his adoptive city is the real deal, he says.

"You've got the sprawling kind of city feel but at the same time you have that small town quality to it," he said. "I just love it."

Bill Kramer

City government should listen to the public more, Bill Kramer says.

The 46-year-old Kramer, general manager of Unity Taxi, says the city's leaders are so indifferent to public input that Evansville residents are "disenfranchised." He cited the Downtown arena as an example.

"I'm not saying the stadium's wrong, I'm not trying to say it's right, but the majority of the people — the vast majority — of the people who I speak with feel like that was done in a way that the community wasn't involved or didn't get to have any input," he said.

"They're very, very upset."

City officials point out that scores of public meetings were held about the future of Roberts Stadium and the arena, including six meetings of the Evansville Arena Project Committee, which was formed in May 2009. A seventh meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at The Centre.

Kramer says regular City Council meetings also could be occasions for more extended public comment.

"I have an idea: How about we have 185,000 mayors?" he said. "They'd all be co-mayors. Guess what: That would be the citizens.

"Yes, there is a time and place when the elected officials have to say, 'I'm doing what I believe is right,' and as citizens we have to trust those individuals. But there does need to be more of an opportunity to listen, more time for feedback."

Pete Swaim

A veteran law enforcement officer, Swaim says that experience would help on the City Council.

Swaim, 66, served nearly three decades as a Vanderburgh County sheriff's deputy, leaving in 2000. Shortly afterward, he accepted an appointment as city executive director of transportation and services. In 2005, Swaim was appointed U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Indiana, a position he held until June 2010.

In a combined 36 years of public service, Swaim says, he has plenty of experience prioritizing public works projects within tight budgets.

Swaim pledges to "try to be as thrifty with the taxpayer dollars as I possibly can."

"My previous experience in several areas of government service will give me a distinct advantage to serve a city councilman," Swaim said after announcing his candidacy. "Having worked on the inside of many city departments has provided me with a great deal of knowledge into the needs of city residents and how city government can make those needs fit within the current budget."

Michelle Mercer

Rooting out the red tape will be Michelle Mercer's priority if she gets elected to the City Council.

Mercer, a registered nurse at Deaconess Hospital and a veteran Republican and anti-abortion activist, says the city must make it easier to start a business.

The first-time candidate says private business owners have told her of their frustrations at burdensome and expensive permitting processes and regulations, persuading her that a top-to-bottom review is needed.

"A lot of times there are multiple permits involved, and we need to see if there isn't a more efficient way," Mercer said. "Although the permits are very necessary for safety and we don't want to eliminate them, we need to make it more navigable for businesses."

The 47-year-old Mercer's push for less burdensome permitting processes mirrors the position taken by GOP mayoral candidate Lloyd Winnecke, with whom she hopes to take action that could promote job creation in the private sector.

In addition to nursing, Mercer says she has career experience in sales, medical business consulting, university administration and real estate.

Woods, a contract land agent who leases property for oil and gas exploration, says the $127.5 million spent on the Downtown arena "could have been used for a jobs creation program — trying to entice a company to locate in Evansville."

He says the failure to hold a referendum on the arena project contributed unnecessarily to an odor of divisiveness about Evansville politics.

The statute governing local referendums speaks only to the use of property taxes, however, making a referendum on the arena project impossible. The arena was funded from a combination of Downtown Tax Increment Financing district revenues, gaming receipts and food-and-beverage taxes.

The 47-year-old Woods was an aircraft maintenance analyst for the Air Force from 1987 until 1991. He also has worked overseas as a computer functional analyst for several U.S. corporations.